The present invention relates to horizontal sidewall sprinkler heads and sprinkler deflectors for producing a spray pattern of water or other fire extinguishing liquid.
Horizontal sidewall sprinkler heads are mounted on the vertical walls of a building or a room, typically at a location near the ceiling. A typical horizontal sprinkler head is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,737 issued to Bosio et al. The prior art horizontal sprinkler head includes a tubular sprinkler body with an inlet end and a discharge end, and a frame consisting of two spaced arms joined to a boss. A deflector includes a vertical portion affixed to the boss and a canopy portion disposed above the vertical portion. In order to distribute fire extinguishing liquid against the wall in which the sprinkler head is mounted, a pair of tabs are bent rearwardly from the vertical portion and converge toward the discharge end of the sprinkler body. However, with the converging tabs, opposite lateral sides of the region beneath the sprinkler head tend to be left uncovered. Also, in order to direct liquid toward a remote region of the area to be protected, the canopy portion of the deflector is inclined upwardly at a small angle with respect to the axis of a sprinkler passage. The upwardly angled canopy portion, however, causes liquid to be directed undesirably beyond the remote region of the area to be protected. This results in opposite lateral sides of the remote region being left uncovered.
Japanese laid-open utility model publication No. 5-24058 discloses a sprinkler body, and a cylindrical frame to which a circular deflector is attached. The deflector includes a plurality of radial slots to provide a plurality of radial tines. An auxiliary deflector extends horizontally forwardly from the frame and has a semicylindrical shape. However, the radial tines causes lateral sides of the region beneath the sprinkler head to be left uncovered. Moreover, the horizontal auxiliary deflector causes fire extinguishing liquid to be directed undesirably beyond a remote region of the area to be protected (see FIG. 12).
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a horizontal sidewall sprinkler head which provides uniform distribution of water or other fire extinguishing liquid over the area to be protected.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a deflector for use in a horizontal sidewall sprinkler head, which assures optimum distribution of fire extinguishing liquid across the region immediately beneath the sprinkler head as well as the wall in which the sprinkler head is mounted.